Visual Materials
Wrecking the Cumberland, 1962
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Wrecking of Capitol Hotel, 300 block, W/S of S. Grand Avenue, 1962
Visual Materials
Demolition of the Kenneth, 325 South Grand Ave (architect: William H. Mohr, 1905); still standing is the Stevens at 321 (architect: Frederick R. Dorn, 1904) which was demolished at the end of 1964.
Book 3, pg. 16 / Neg. 14101
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Inside Cumberland Hotel Apartments — now completely wrecked, 1962
Visual Materials
This collection contains approximately 9,000 negatives (2 1/4 x 2 1/4 inches), 7 binders of contact prints of a large portion of the negatives, and 3 photobooks (11 x 14 inches). The photographs were taken by Theodore Hall, an avid amateur photographer and resident of Bunker Hill, Los Angeles from 1938 to 1963. Photographs depict the historic structures and streets of the neighborhood before and during the urban renewal of the 1950s, when buildings were razed and much of the hill was lopped off and graded. Hall photographed houses, storefronts, signs, architectural details, cars, and often the residents: shopkeepers, newsstand vendors, local children, and people on their front porches. A diverse population including African American, Asian American, Latin American, and white residents are pictured in everyday activities in the neighborhood. Grand Central Market, the downtown food and grocery emporium, is featured extensively in detailed images of vendors, customers, neon signs, and food stalls. Also seen on Bunker Hill are hotels and apartment buildings, the Angels Flight funicular railway, Victorian mansions turned into rooming houses, liquor stores, and construction crews grading land and pouring cement. Many historic buildings are seen in disrepair, and some are pictured in the midst of being torn down. Other Los Angeles sites depicted are: Union Station, City Hall, Olvera Street and the Plaza, churches, freeways, and automotive tunnels. The contact print binders also contain Hall's photographs of friends, social gatherings, camera club members, practice portrait sessions, annual visits to family in the San Francisco Bay Area, and a few day trips in Southern California. Some of the Los Angeles architects whose buildings are represented are: John C. W. Austin, Austin and Brown, Welton Becket, Dodd and Richards, Frederick R. Dorn, Edelman & Barnett, Theodore A. Eisen, Charles O. Ellis, Arthur L. Haley, Marsh and Russell, T. J. McCarthy, William H. Mohr, Joseph C. Newsom, John Parkinson, John Cotter Pelton Jr., James M. Shields, Lewis A. Smith, Train and Williams, George Herbert Wyman, and Robert Brown Young.
Book 1, pg. 46 / Neg. 10172
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Inside Cumberland Hotel Apartments, 243 S. Olive, 1952
Visual Materials
Hall was living here in 1952 per voting registration records. The man pictured here is the manager, Benjamin Abowitz, born in Kovno in 1891. His wife Fannie née Shulman can be seen in the contact prints, Volume 1.
Book 1, pg. 45 / Neg. 5654
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Detail at West 3rd and Olive streets — 1962
Visual Materials
The Angels Flight Café opened in 1933. The neon sign likely dates to the 1936 remodel. In the distance can be seen the recently-constructed Court House. The Victorian structure to the left of the man is 238/236 South Olive.
Book 1, pg. 44 / Neg. 14089
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221 South Olive, 1957
Visual Materials
Herman Baer house (architect: John Cotter Pelton Jr., 1887). Demolished in 1964.
Book 3, pg. 36 / Neg. 10974
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La Loma Apartments, 251 S. Olive, 1962
Visual Materials
Built 1923 by Lewis A. Smith; demolished in 1963.
Book 3, pg. 33 / Neg. 14106